1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus which functions as a copying machine, a printer, or a combination thereof, in which an optical system with a fixed flat-bed platen is used as an input means.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, electrophotographic image forming apparatuses, called xe2x80x9cdigital multifunction machinesxe2x80x9d, have become popular. In a digital method, information about a document image is read by an image sensor such as a CCD.
The read image information is converted from optical information into electrical signals by the image sensor, transmitted to a control section in the apparatus body, subjected to processing, such as A/D conversion, shading correction, and density adjustment, by an image processing circuit, and output to a printer section.
In an image exposure method adopted in the printer section, a light beam scanning optical system is widely used in which the surface of a photoconductor is exposed by a light beam which is deflected and reflected by deflecting faces of a light deflector, such as a rotary polygonal mirror.
The design of the light beam scanning optical system allows the printer section to be arranged with a certain degree of freedom. A configuration of an image forming apparatus having this advantage has been proposed, as shown in FIGS. 14 and 15.
Referring to FIG. 14, a reading section 100 having the above-described light beam scanning optical system is placed at the top of the image forming apparatus, and a sheet cassette 120 is placed at the bottom.
Between the reading section 100 and the sheet cassette 120, various units, such as a photoconductor 113, a developing device 114, and a fixing device 115, are arranged in a substantially vertical direction. A sheet fed out of the sheet cassette 120 is subjected to an image forming operation by an image forming section. After the image forming operation, the sheet is discharged into a space inside the apparatus surrounded by the sheet cassette 120 and the reading section 100.
In such a conventional configuration, a sheet discharging space section is provided inside the apparatus body to shorten the process distance from sheet supply to sheet discharge, thereby reducing the footprint of the apparatus.
In the conventional configuration, however, the overall footprint must be larger than the basic footprint of the apparatus body. One reason for this is that a tray 131 of a manual sheet supply section 130 serving a second supply means is arranged so as to extend outside the basic footprint of the apparatus body, as shown in FIG. 14.
Another reason is that an outer cover 140 is opened in a direction so as to protrude from the apparatus body during maintenance operations, such as operations for replacing consumed supplies or recovering a sheet jam, as shown in FIG. 15, and this requires more space for such operations on the periphery of the portion where the apparatus is installed.
In other words, although there is a desire to reduce the footprint of the body of the image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus has a component protruding outside the basic footprint of the apparatus body, and a larger space than the basic footprint of the apparatus body is required for jam recovery and/or other maintenance operations. This hinders radical solutions to the problem.
While a sheet with an image formed thereon is discharged in the leftward direction in FIG. 15, supply from the manual sheet supply section 130 serving as the second supply means and jam recovery operations are performed from the rightward direction in FIG. 15. Therefore, the user must perform such operations from two different directions.
When such an apparatus is installed on a small desk, the user must move or the apparatus body must be moved during such operations, in accordance with the respective directions of such operations, and this imposes a heavy burden on the user.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus with improved operability which is operated within the footprint thereof.
In one aspect, the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus including an image reader that reads information about an image on a document, a sheet support disposed below the image reader and arranged for supporting sheets thereon, and image forming means disposed between the image reader and the sheet support. A body of the image forming apparatus has at least one of the image reader, the sheet support and the image forming means, and provides a sheet discharging space into which a sheet having an image formed thereon by the image forming means is discharged, where the image reader, the sheet support, and the image forming means are arranged around the sheet discharging space. The image forming apparatus further includes opening means for exposing the image forming means to the exterior of the image forming apparatus through the sheet discharging space.
In another aspect, the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus including image reading means for reading information about an image on a document, sheet supporting means, disposed below the image reading means, for supporting sheets thereon, and image forming means disposed between the image reading means and the sheet supporting means. A body of the image forming apparatus has at least one of the image reading means, the sheet supporting means and the image forming means, and provides a sheet discharging space into which a sheet having an image formed thereon by the image forming means is discharged, where the image reading means, the sheet supporting means, and the image forming means are arranged around the sheet discharging space. The image forming apparatus further includes opening means for exposing the image forming means to the exterior of the image forming apparatus through the sheet discharging space.
In each of these aspects of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, the opening means may be movable between a first position, in which the image forming means is not exposed to the sheet discharging space, and a second position, in which the image forming means is exposed to the sheet discharging space.
In another aspect, the opening means may constitute a guide for guiding a sheet in the image forming apparatus. The guide further may include at least one of transfer means for transferring an image formed by the image forming means onto a sheet, fixing means for fixing an image transferred onto a sheet by the transfer means, and a sheet discharging tray rotatably supported on the opening means for receiving a sheet discharged by the image forming apparatus.